Love Is In The Blair

We stood over his bed and prayed fervently. We prayed intensely for healing, just as we'd done over so many in the hospital a couple of days prior. The same refrain that has come from countless groups I've been a part of that have interceded for healing played, as whispered petitions filled the quaint dwelling we found ourselves in. Once again, as has seemingly always been the case when I pray for diseased and bed-ridden people, we left a man lying in his bed, not yet healed. It was our third week in Honduras, and the team I was visiting for the week, was in the midst of the final week of ministry of their second month. We'd joined the pastor and doctor for a house visit to see... let's call him, Alejandro. Alejandro was a skeleton with skin to the naked eye. He laid in his bed, emaciated, a blanket covering his diapered mid-section and homemade colonic bag, which appeared to be not much more than a plastic baggy held on with scotch tape. It's fai...

Blogs are supposed to have pictures, partly because people have short attention spans, partly because they are "pretty," and partly because they are "worth a thousand words." But there are some things in life that a thousand pictures could not convey... I hugged her, closed the door, and the car pulled away. She was off on likely the longest five or six hour journey of life... Some situations are so surreal that you can't ever imagine how you could adequately put them in words, but something in me knew, even before she rode away, that I needed to try. Honestly, even as I'm writing this, I can't help but think that it deserves more... More feeling... More words... More than I can give. An hour before I was sitting, preparing to read my Bible, Sally walked in... "I need someone with a pastoral heart to come with me..." ...I grabbed my shoes and got Jake as I left the driveway. Five minutes later we were walkin...

You know how sometimes cool things happen and you know you SHOULD type about em, but you don't really have the words to express it in as eloquent a way as you'd want?  Of course you don't... your diction is flawless and your vocabulary is expansive.  But some of us (this guy) just have to suck it up and type it out anyway. Well... About 17 months ago I took off around the world on this whole "World Race" thing you might have heard of.  I was incredibly blessed to journey far and wide with some remarkable people (pictured above) growing in the Lord in large part thanks to the selfless donations of "viewers like you" (However, Juicy Juice did not help sponsor me).  Such support from so many people in the form of prayer, financial, and equipment contributions were so wonderful beyond what my words could say, and allowed me the opportunity to have and share an incredible experience.  For those of you who helped me in that journ...

THE APPETIZER I recently posted this link on Facebook discussing the potential court martial of people who share their faith in the military... which is shocking I know, because I NEVER post links to Facebook.  Some of you, no doubt, have seen it. As is often the case, a conversation ensued, following my request that those who don’t like it sign the petition available to express disagreement, because, as we all know, the world’s problems are solved with electronic signatures, Facebook profile pictures, and Twitter avatars.   I was then asked… “Constitutionally speaking, do you feel like religion should be a part of our military in any form?” My retort was… “’Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;...’" Then I was prompted with this… “Maybe if everyone was respectable about it, I could potentially agree with your point of view. But since that's not always the case, ...

[IF YOU HAVEN'T READ ANY BACKGROUND ON THIS YOU CAN FIND  PART 1: "THE LEAD UP" AND PARE 2: "THE STREETS". ] I have 5 main takeaways from this experience. 1.  Many people ask, “How could a good and loving God let bad things happen to good people?”  I’ve heard this cry from people before as to why they refuse to follow the Christian God.  Well, God has called us to act, to be His hands and feet.  It makes no sense for us to cross our arms in disgust at a “good” God, as we sit upon what we falsely assume to be a moral “high ground” doing NOTHING!  (Don’t get me wrong, we can’t earn our way into relationship with God, but the fruit of His children certainly isn’t idly letting evil occur). 2.  Some people might not be cold, but might have the misconception that they can’t help, or just may not know how.  The majority of us can’t claim ignorance of the problem, but some of us are lazy enough that we don’t find out how to help, so we...

[YOU CAN FIND PART 1 HERE.] The Streets:    We stood on the street corners for those that are forced to work the corners, dark alleys, and backrooms.  We spoke out for those confined to cages and locked rooms, many of which have been there since younger than 10 years old, and some of which STILL are younger than 10 years old.  We were a face for those forced to be soldiers, and for those forced to work fields, brick factories, or even to service, what usually amounts to, man after man after man sexually.  We didn’t free any of them directly, but we were trying to enlist “civilians” in the battle. “Men, women, and, worst of all, children are literally forced into labor and sex slavery, and you can help just by knowing what to look out for,” was more or less our refrain of the weekend. “I’m good.” “I’m Okay.” “No thanks.” Those words served as the all-too-frequent echo we’d hear back, as if we were offering information on some new cell serv...

Preface: A few weeks back I posted, “Calling All Men (and Women).”   This is a call back to that event, a reflection on parts of the experience of proclaiming the uncomfortable truth of modern day slavery in Atlanta during the Men’s Final Four.  I don’t pretend to think that human trafficking is the sole problem in the world, but it certainly is atrocious. Face:   The Lead Up : The idea came to me fairly late in the game, but I must admit some disappointment that there were never more than 2 of us out there (and one person joined me twice).  I’m not saying that I have any more “holy” place than you if you didn’t go. Now I realize a few things.   I know others were involved in fighting this in other ways this particular weekend.  It was also only a call to be there to men, so women are a little more “off-the-hook.”  Some had other plans already laid out and other responsibilities to attend to.  Some of you aren’t even in Geo...

This is an Event… Not just a blog to read.  There is a call to action. The Problem: Sin, but let’s narrow that down for a moment… Labor and sex slavery.  It’s real.  It’s here.  Yes, even the great “Christian Nation” America is not immune from this black spot on our species.  Men, women, and children are slaves.  They are forced into labor.  They are forced into sex.  Beyond that, even their captors and those that purchase their “services” are slaves, not in a physical sense, but at the VERY LEAST in a spiritual sense, living their lives chasing a lie and in the process enslaving others as a result of their chasing of “self.”  We have the tendency to hate them, but we must remember we have been forgiven of much, and if THAT is not enough let us look to the use and transformation of Saul/Paul (a murderer and persecutor of the church), David (murderer and adulterer), and Moses (murderer), amongst many others.  What if we we...

#ParagraphsThatMakeYouWantToReadABlog…?  à A large part of this blog is obligatory.  It’s the last month I have to write.  I honestly can’t write with full candidness-ity-tion of this month for me, but I’ll put what I can.  But don’t get me wrong.  It’s not like blog-able or blog worthy things didn’t happen.  In fact, it’s only because I think so highly of people this month that to not talk a little about them would be quasi-garbage, that I’m writing… errr typing… this.  If they’d been an ounce less awesome your eyes would be spared. All that to say… if you’re looking for “one of my finer writings” scroll to a different blog, but if you actually wanna know a little about the Philippines… stand by… *waits for the poser blog readers to dip out* Our contacts are wonderful and the ministry fabulous. The Philippines is just one of those places that, if you’ve been to it, that you can’t help but love, unless you suck.  (maybe that’s u...